Sugar and Spite

Title: Sugar and Spite
Author: M.C. Beaton, R.W. Green
Published: October 14, 2025 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 256 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Agatha Raisin #36

Blurb: When a series of deaths within the small Cotswolds birdwatching community begins to unravel her village, Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators are certain there has been foul play involved. Now, they must dig up decades' worth of tempestuous relationships and simmering secrets among the birdwatching enthusiasts of the village in order to prevent any further deaths.

But with Agatha's own relationship with John Glass on the rocks after he is called away on his job as a cruise ship dance instructor, and Sir Charles Fraith now attempting to step into John’s shoes as her lover, Agatha has her work cut out for her.

Agatha will have to break out her binoculars and embrace her bitter side to solve the murders and wrangle the sickly-sweet temptations in her own life. Will she be able to gather all the breadcrumbs and put together the clues before she becomes a sitting duck herself?

My Opinion: I wasn’t prepared for the way this ending landed. It snuck up on me and delivered every emotional beat I didn’t realize I’d been waiting for. Up until then, the book had been a bit uneven—twisty in places, sluggish in others—but that final stretch lifted it from an okay installment into something more satisfying.

I’ve been openly skeptical about R.W. Green continuing the series after M.C. Beaton’s passing. For a long time, it felt like he couldn’t quite capture the sharp, distinctly female perspective that makes Agatha Raisin who she is. But this book surprised me. For the first time, I felt that spark again, the one that makes Agatha both maddening and irresistible.

All the familiar faces are here, and their interactions feel comfortably in step with the long-running series. The new characters tied to the murder, though, were harder to keep straight. I’m not sure if it was the way they were introduced or simply that they blurred together, but I found myself pausing more than once to remember who was who.

As for Agatha’s future, I genuinely don’t know where she goes from here. Maybe we’re seeing the beginnings of a refreshed version of her. Then again, part of her charm is that she never really changes. She’s still the woman who barrels into trouble, emerges from mud puddles with perfect lipstick, and spots a liar from a mile away. That’s why readers keep coming back. No matter how twisty the mystery gets, Agatha remains Agatha, and that’s the real draw.

The Old Fire

Title: The Old Fire
Author: Elisa Shua Dusapin
Translator: Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Published: January 13, 2026, by S&S/Summit Books
Format: Kindle, 192 Pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Blurb: Agathe leaves New York and returns to her home in the French countryside, after fifteen years away.

She and her sister Véra have not seen each other in all those years, and they carry the weight of their own complicated lives. But now their father has died, and they must confront their childhood home on the outskirts of a country estate ravaged by a nearby fire before it is knocked down. They have nine days to empty it. As the pair clean and sift through a lifetime’s worth of belongings, old memories, and resentments surface.

Tender and tense, haunting and evocative, The Old Fire is Elisa Shua Dusapin’s most personal and moving novel yet. An exploration of time and memory, of family and belonging, it is also a graceful and profound look at the unsaid and the unanswered, the secrets that remain, and whether you can ever really go home again.

My Opinion: Every so often, a book sneaks up on me, and this novel did exactly that. At under 200 pages, it shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did, yet here I am full of feelings, full of questions, and already imagining the kind of conversations it would spark in a book club.

The novel follows two sisters, Agatha and Véra, who reunite after their father’s death to sort through the remnants of their childhood home. Agatha bolted the moment she was old enough, while Véra stayed behind to shoulder the responsibility she left her with. Their week together is a slow excavation of memory with humor tucked beside resentment, tenderness brushing up against old wounds, and a kind of honesty that only siblings can manage. Even so, plenty remains unspoken.

Dusapin threads in the girls’ earlier years with a light but deliberate hand with Véra’s sudden muteness, Agatha’s fierce instinct to protect her, and the mother who walked away without much care for what she left behind. These pieces don’t form a tidy puzzle, but they deepen the emotional terrain the sisters must navigate.

By the end, Dusapin resists the urge to explain everything. Instead, she leaves space for the reader to sit with the unknowns and stitch together meaning on their own. It’s unsettling in the best way. Not everyone will call this a perfect book, but it blindsided me, and now I’m left turning it over in my mind, accepting that some stories aren’t meant to be tied up neatly.

The Hidden City

Title: The Hidden City
Author: Charles Finch
Published: September 6, 2025, by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 288 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Charles Lenox Mysteries #12

Blurb: It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class.

At the same time, Lenox must contend with the complexities of his personal life: a surprising tension with his steadfast wife, Lady Jane, over her public support of the early movement for women's suffrage; the arrival of Angela Lenox, a mysterious young cousin from India, with an unexpected companion; the dizzying ascent of his brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, to one of the highest political posts in the land; the growing family of his young partners in detection, Polly and Dallington; and the return of the problems that have long bedeviled one of his closest friends, the dashing Scottish physician Thomas McConnell.

My Opinion: One of the things that I enjoy about a Charles Lenox novel is how it teaches the reader something while telling a good story. Every book offers a bit of history, a touch of vocabulary, a lot of mystery, and a handful of plot threads that resolve at their own pace. This novel may be short in page count, but it does not skimp on the details.

Because there’s been a long gap since the previous book, it takes a moment to settle back in. Once you do, the familiar rhythm returns, and the promise of another installment later this year makes the adjustment easier. The series has never bored me, and with Jane protesting for the right to vote and two new charges now in Lennox’s care, the emotional stakes feel richer than before.

What surprised me most was finding myself sympathizing with a villain. I can’t recall another Lenox novel that pulled that off quite this strongly. The middle section may feel slow for some readers, but the story regains its footing with its well drawn cast and engaging dialogue.

Where Finch will take us next is anyone’s guess, but that uncertainty is part of the fun.

Imposter Syndrome

Title: Imposter Syndrome
Author: Andrew Mayne
Published: October 21, 2025 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle, 288 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: The Specialists #2

Blurb: The FBI calls on former agent Jessica Blackwood to look at a puzzling crime. A wildlife officer has found the body of a popular YouTuber encased in an obelisk made of salt in a remote refuge. When the agency is tipped off to a second body, that of a TikTok star chained to the bottom of Nevada’s Pyramid Lake—her hands clasped in prayer—Jessica recruits a trusted colleague of her Floridian underwater investigator Sloan McPherson.

It appears to be the work of a ritualistic serial killer preying on influencers. That tracks when a third victim—a fantasy-game live streamer—barely survives a pipe bomb attack. But in navigating the social media world of instafame, manipulation, and deception, Jessica and Sloan know how illusory appearances can be. As the threats multiply across the country, they fear they’re playing with something more extreme than they a killer’s endgame that could be nothing less than apocalyptic.

My Opinion: I’ve realized that when it comes to Andrew Mayne’s ensemble, I gravitate far more toward Theo Cray and Brad Trasker than Jessica Blackwood and Sloan McPherson. His male characters consistently feel sharper, with richer depth and banter that sparks. The women, unfortunately, don’t get the same treatment; Jessica and Sloan’s interactions often read like a mother lecturing a teenage daughter, bogged down in repetitive exchanges that sap the energy from the page. That said, if Mayne ever spun off a series around Trasker’s mother, I’d be first in line.

This book sits as a companion to his other series, pulling together familiar faces from across his backlist. It’s the kind of convergence that works best if you’ve already read the individual series in order. With that foundation, you know who each character is, what they bring to the table, and the crossover feels like a reward rather than a puzzle. Readers new to Mayne might miss some of the nuance, but for those invested, the interplay adds texture.

The plot itself is a cocktail of modern intrigue: AI technology, social media influencers, and secretive Mormon fundamentalists. It’s eclectic enough that nearly every reader will find a hook. At times, though, the narrative gets convoluted, leaving gaps that aren’t fully explained. Still, Jessica’s magician upbringing and the literal tunnels she navigates lend an additional depth to the confusion.

What really landed was the final twist. I didn’t see it coming, and it was one of the rare moments that made me stop, reread, and appreciate the cleverness. That spark reminded me why I keep picking up Mayne’s books, even when some installments don’t hit the same high notes.

No author can deliver edge-of-your-seat suspense every single time, and this doesn’t quite reach the intensity of Mayne’s best. But it sets the stage for what’s next: Chaos Man, arriving soon, with the full band—Cray, Blackwood, Trasker, and McPherson—back together. And that reunion alone is enough to keep me curious.